make life sweeter!

I'm pretty happy with myself, finished this month's Daring Bakers challenge on time AND finished writing about it in time to post it on the 27th!
So this month we made cannoli. Not something that was very high on my to do list but I've always been curious about their taste. They are not something you would find in the Netherlands (or Austria I think). I'm not very big on frying so that's something I very rarely do. But it's good to practice now and then. I think I've only used ricotta once in my life and I didn't like the cake I produced so I wasn't sure I was going to like the filling. But since I like traditional baked goods, decided to stick with the original recipe anyway.
Cannoli forms is not something I own but I did have something similar that I purchased a few months ago: schaumrolle forms. Pretty much the same thing only smaller (6 cm / 2.4 in) and coated with teflon. I was in doubt if the teflon would appreciate being fried but I thought baking the cannoli in the oven wouldn't be authentic enough. I tried frying it and the teflon seemed ok.
I made the dough as stated. When rolling it I used my new rolling pin with adjustable thickness rings (heaven to use!) and rolled it out to 2 mm (a little more than 1/16 in) thickness. The dough was easy enough to roll. I had egg left over so used that to seal the cannoli's and this worked well too. Unfortunately after baking the dough the cannoli never turned out blistered even though the oil was hot enough as it took less than a minute to brown them. With the second batch I used the 1 mm (less than 1/16 in) ring for my rolling pin hoping that the thinner dough would give the blistering but even those didn't blister :(
For the filling I pretty much followed the recipe except I used grated chocolate instead of chopped, used almonds instead of pistachio nuts and added a few drops of orange essential oil in addition to the candied orange peel. Never thought that ricotta with some sugar and flavours would be this good :) Nice substitute for buttercream on cakes, and less rich too, but probably everybody except me already knew this ;)
The filling combined with the bite size cannoli's was good and I'm glad I finally got to taste real cannoli's. I don't think I will ever make them again though with all the work and frying involved. But that's probably because I'm not a 'fryer' person.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

CANNOLI SHELLS
2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners' sugar

CANNOLI FILLING
2 lbs (approx. 3.5 cups/approx. 1 kg/32 ounces) ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups cup (160 grams/6 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (4 grams/0.15 ounces) pure vanilla extract or the beans from one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons (approx. 28 grams/approx. 1 ounce) finely chopped good quality chocolate of your choice
2 tablespoons (12 grams/0.42 ounces) of finely chopped, candied orange peel, or the grated zest of one small to medium orange
3 tablespoons (23 grams/0.81 ounce) toasted, finely chopped pistachios
Note - If you want chocolate ricotta filling, add a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder to the above recipe, and thin it out with a few drops of warm water if too thick to pipe.

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.
3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.
4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.
5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

DIRECTIONS FOR FILLING:
1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.
2. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and stir in chocolate, zest and nuts. Chill until firm.(The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Just cover and keep refrigerated).

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:
1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.
2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

This is the first DB bakers challenge I made very early on, but that has all to do with the fact that I'm co-hosting this month's challenge ;) I just found out I was pregnant when I heard I was to co-host this month's challenge...and my due-date was actually the 21st of the same month! But I figured it would be ok since there were three of us to co-host. But as May drew closer both other hosts turned out to have other obligations and I was left alone. It seemed a bit too much to do it on my own with giving birth and all ;) Luckily the first person I asked to co-host with me said yes :) Thanks so much for that Courtney!
The main reason I joined the Daring Bakers was to explore new techniques. And as the challenges progressed I learned more and more. There was repetition of techniques too, making the challenge recipe itself a bit less challenging but there was always the choice of flavour or presentation to make it challenging.
My thoughts for this challenge was to make something that was all about technique, a technique not yet dealt with by the Daring Bakers: Strudel dough. Making strudel dough had been on my to-do list for ages but I never dared making the ultra-thin dough...until now that is!
Both Courtney (of Coco Cooks) and I made the dough prior to posting the May challenge. Though I was very apprehensive to make it, it turned out being less difficult (and stressful ;) than I imagined. Making the dough and stretching went pretty smoothly. I made the traditional Apple Strudel and hoped to have energy to make a fancier one later on. Unfortunately I couldn't force myself to make it again....not enough energy :(
The dough itself is quick to make, the most time-consuming is preparing for the filling: making and baking the bread crumbs and peeling and slices the apples mainly. But the results were definitely worth it, the strudel tasted just wonderful! I don't think I ever had a real (as in thin layers of dough) apple strudel before so I cannot compare but we will be moving to Vienna in about a month so I can check out the 'real thing' over there :)

I hope everybody had a great time trying out this month's challenge, I know I did (once the stretching thing turned out going well ;)
And in case you're wondering...no baby yet ;)



Apple strudel (from Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers)

makes one big strudel

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.
3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.
4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.
5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough (from Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers)

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.
4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Tips
- Ingredients are cheap so we would recommend making a double batch of the dough, that way you can practice the pulling and stretching of the dough with the first batch and if it doesn't come out like it should you can use the second batch to give it another try;
- The tablecloth can be cotton or polyster;
- Before pulling and stretching the dough, remove your jewelry from hands and wrists, and wear short-sleeves;
- To make it easier to pull the dough, you can use your hip to secure the dough against the edge of the table;
- Few small holes in the dough is not a problem as the dough will be rolled, making (most of) the holes invisible.

Both Courtney and I did a trial run on making the strudel. Below are our notes:

Courtney's notes
- She could't get it to stretch to 2 feet by 3 feet, it turned out more like 2 feet by 2 feet. But the dough was tissue thin nevertheless;
- She got some serious holes, but after rolling it wasn't noticeable;
- She used a large cheese cloth which helped manipulate and stretch the dough more than a heavier cloth would have.

My notes
- I made the dough by hand, just mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Kneaded it for about 5 min like you would bread dough. This worked as well. Haven't tried using a standmixer so I don't know how it compares.
- Instead of cider vinegar I used red wine vinegar;
- I used bread flour;
- Picking up the dough to let it stretch didn't work well for me, holes appeared pretty much instantly. Instead I stretched the dough while it was lying on the tablecloth by putting my hands underneath and stretching it out further and further;

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I made this tea blend as part of the care package I gave to my family to conclude Christmas diner. The blend consists of black tea, dried orange peel, dried rose petals and crushed cinnamon sticks. Instead of searching for ready dried orange peel I made my own from organic navel oranges. It costs a few days before you can use the dried peel but it is so worth doing. The orange smell is intoxicating...yum! Especially when the peels are drying. The oranges themselves were the best I've eaten in years. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with oranges. I love pretty much anything orange flavoured, I can even say it's my favourite flavour but when it comes to eating oranges I'm very hesitant. As long as I can remember oranges have been disappointing many times. They usually turn out either dry, not sour enough, not fragrant enough or with seeds (I hate that). After many disappointing oranges I sort of stopped eating them a long time ago. When I was very nauseaus whilst pregnant with my oldest son I tried eating oranges. We lived in Tel Aviv so the only oranges you could buy were locally grown and they were fantastic! Maybe they tasted even better because I didn't like eating anything besides yoghurt with banana ;) Well the organic oranges tasted as good as the ones I ate back then. So whenever I buy oranges in the future in the Netherlands I will buy organic. They were so much better than regular ones. Probably because they were picked at the right stage of ripeness.
I'm degressing, I was talking about tea...so you dry your own orange peel. Chop them up and add them to the black tea, crushed cinnamon and rose petals.
The first blend I made didn't have enough rose and orange taste so I added more. Unfortunately the tea didn't taste very rose-y but I already doubled the amount and didn't feel like buying more. Visually it does look very rose-y though. Maybe a different type of rose petals would have worked better but these were the only ones I could find.
The smell of this blend is so very good that you could just use it as a potpourri (if you are a potpourri kind of person) I couldn't stop sniffing it and loved opening the cupboard my private little stash was in.



Dried orange peel

makes about 35 g (1 ¼ oz)

about 4 organic oranges

Cut of the peel, try cutting off the oranges part only (a little white pith is ok though). Let the peel dry on a cooling rack until dry. Can take up to a few days.

Winter tea

makes a lot ;)

500 g (1 lb) black tea
50 g (1 ¾ oz) dried rose petals
35 g (1 ¼ oz) dried orange peel, finely chopped
15 g (½ oz) cinnamon stick, crushed

Mix everything together and keep in an airtight container.
Steep the tea for about 5 minutes to get the best taste.

I wish I finished this month's Daring Baker's challenge on the day I intended: on Christmas eve. This was the evening I invited family for a Christmas diner. I already did some preparations to make it but just before going to bed on the 23rd I discovered that I wouldn't be able to finish the entremet in time because of lack of time. I didn't register that you had to freeze it overnight in between :( Lucky for me that this dessert was one of the desserts I planned on making so it was no problem from my guests. But I was sad that I didn't have this showstopper to serve along with the rest. In the end it turned out I wouldn't have been able to make it in time anyway even without the overnight freezing. I wasn't going to make this dessert for just the 4 of us so I finished it today to take with us to friends of ours who have recently moved to the US and are back in the Netherlands for the Holidays. We're spending the last days of 2008 with them in a holiday home near Apeldoorn. I don't think there will be an internet connection over there so you'll have to manage with only a picture of the outside. Will provide the inside when we get back on the 31st.
I didn't do extravagant things with the flavours, I left the dark chocolate mousse as the recipe, same for the crème brûlée and crispy chocolate insert. The only things I flavoured differently were the ganache that I flavoured with orange essential oil, yum! Added about 15 drops. For the dacquoise I used 10% bitter almonds to get a stronger almond taste and flavoured it with ½ ts of cinnamon. The end result was just delicious! It tasted like good marzipan flavoured with cinnamon, definitely a keeper! I'm curious how the complete dessert will taste.
So how was the process? A quick recap:

- The crème brûlée took a LOT longer to set, I think it took double the time, besides that it was easy to make (was the first time I made crème brûlée :)

- The crispy chocolate insert was easy, I used a butterscotch chocolate bar (with small pieces of crunchy caramel bits) in addition to the praline.

- I couldn't find glucose of corn syrup (not common in the Netherlands, the shop I knew where to get it was sold out from Thanksgiving and were only able to get a new batch at the end of January!). Instead I used something could corn/malt syrup, someting I found in the health shop. Didn't taste the same but I guessed it more or less had the same qualities. Worked out fine.

- I heated the pâté à bombe in a double boiler after adding the mixing in the sugar syrup because according to my calculations there was no way the egg yolks would be cooked enough to make it pregnant woman and children proof. This also makes the pâté à bombe even more stable. While checking the temperature I ruined my electric thermometer, it got stuck between the whisks of my hand mixer :( The hand mixer is in bad shape too :(

- Mousse worked well, though it was a bit on the bitter side because I used 70% chocolate.

- Ganache was easy and tasted very good (have left-over :)

- Assembly wasn't difficult but I'm curious if the layers will be parallel

- I added an extra layer of crunchy chocolate against the ganache.

- I was distracted during the making of the chocolate icing so it nearly boiled over. Ended up with small lumps too. Removed them when possible after icing.

- Though the icing covered the back of a spoon I think it was still too liquid when I poured it over the mousse. Well better too liquid than too stiff.

- I used marzipan dipped in cocoa for decoration

Like I said, I'm curious about how all components taste together. Also curious about the textures in frozen state. Will update about that on the 31st , together with a picture of the inside.



Update:
I tasted the entremet and thought it was good but like I already said, the mousse was a bit on the bitter and not so sweet side. Would use a chocolate with less cocoa content next time. The orange ganache was a delicious addition. The dacqoise didn't come through like it did on it's own but was still a good base. My layers were pretty level, so I was happy with that. Above the crème brûlée is a not so visible crispy chocolate layer. The picture is not very clear but from the bottom there is almond cinnamon dacqoise, orange ganache, crispy chocolate, chocolate mousse, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, crispy chocolate, more chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze.
Sorry about the not so clean cut ;)

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

Wow, almost 3 weeks without a new post. And it's the season for baking. Something I've been doing but not enough time to post about it in a relaxed manner. So what have I been doing for the last 3 weeks? Taking care of my sick kids (not all 3 weeks though). Also I spent quite a lot of time thinking about what to make for Christmas since I invited A's family and mine to come spend that with us. I'm not the type to buy ready-made stuff and also not the type to keep it simple :) so I've started baking and cooking since last weekend. The dinner will be Italian(-ish). I'm not going to give everything away because the family reads this blog as well ;)
Of course there will be a need for sweet stuff as well, maybe a little more than the average Italian family will serve for Christmas but in the sweets department I'm all for more is more ;) Most stuff will be bite-size but it's nice to have a variety of sweets to bite in ;)
Unfortunately not everything went according to plan up till now. I usually don't repeat myself too much in the sweet department which means I want to try new recipes and especially new techniques. This resulted in some failures that I had/have to redo. This panforte I made was perfect the first time though. Not exactly nougat, not exactly cookie, I'd say it's somewhere in between. Honey and sugar are cooked and mixed with nuts, candied orange and lemons, flour, spices and cocoa, and then baked. Traditionally baked in a round 20 cm (8 in) pan but I tripled the recipe and baked it in a large rectangular pan so I'd be able to cut out 9 mini panforte's. By doing so I saved a lot of time by only making and baking the recipe once (and there were a lot of yummy scraps left-over to munch on :). The thickness is the thickness you'd have for a regular one, only instead of being 20 cm (8 in) they are only 9 cm (3 ½ in).
The recipe calls for candied orange peel and candied lemon peel. I was lucky to have Italian orange peel in syrup which I drained and let dry for a day before chopping. Candied lemon is not something you'd easily find in the Netherlands and I didn't have the time to make my own unfortunately. What I did instead was use sukade (the candied peel of the Citrus medica), though a citrus fruit it doesn't really taste like lemon, at least not the candied version you can buy here. To compensate for the lack of taste I added the zest of 2 lemons.
The panforte turned out perfect and delicious, the good thing about this nougat/cookie is that it keeps for several weeks so you can start making them early (that is if I would have posted about it earlier ;). There are more panforte recipes but this is one from Sienna. From what I've read about it, it's something that is typically served at/around Christmas time in Italy.
Even though not a typical cookie, I'm sending this recipe over to Susan's Eat Christmas Cookies.
Below is the original recipe. If you'd like to do what I did and make 9 mini versions, just triple the recipe and use a 27 cm x 35 cm (11 x 14 in) rectangular pan.



Panforte Senese (from the Dutch version of Culinaria Italia by Ludwig Könemann)

makes a 20 cm (8 in) panforte

75 g (2 ¾ oz) hazelnuts, toasted and skinned, coarsely chopped
75 g (2 ¾ oz) almonds, blanched and skinned, coarsely chopped
175 g (6 ¼ oz) candied lemon and orange peel, finely chopped
50 g (1 ¾ oz) flour
25 g (1 oz) cocoa powder
½ ts cinnamon
½ ts mixed spices
100 g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar
100 g (3 ½ oz) honey

for dusting:
2 tbs confectioner's sugar
1 ts cinnamon

Line the bottom of a round 20 cm (8 in) (springform) pan with baking paper.
Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F).
Mix nuts, peel, flour, cocoa, cinnamon and mixed spices.
Mix sugar and honey in a large sauce pan and gently heat until the sugar has dissolved/melted. Raise the temperature and allow the mixture to cook until 115°C (240°F). Immediately add the nut, peel and flour mixture and stir till combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a wet spoon. Work as quickly as possible because the mixture will firm up when it cools.
Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan. Invert and place the right side up. Generously dust with a mixture of confectioner's sugar and cinnamon, and cut it in wedges.